Why Kite Turbines
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ต.ค. 2022
- We're often asked to explain what goes on at Windswept and interesting Ltd
Well now you know
We make Kite Turbines
And this is the video all about why.
Script
Why make Kite Turbines?
We need to harvest wind energy in the most efficient way possible.
This requires sleek blades, to continuously sweep fast across the oncoming wind.
That sounds like a wind turbine . . . But wind turbines have problems with efficiency as they scale.
First let’s look at the structure. It’s a solid cantilever tower, on a massive reinforced concrete base. Basically - these turbines become much heavier and more wobbly as they grow. This weight gain happens faster than the power increases. The structures become less efficient as they grow because they use more material per power output.
As for the blade. Only the tip of a wind turbine blade is moving fast. The tip of a wind turbine is its most aerodynamically efficient part. The rest of the huge structure mostly exists just to push the blade tip into wind at height.
But wind turbines need to scale so that they can harvest the stronger more reliable winds at higher altitude to generate more power per land area used.
Kite turbines are a new way to enable scaling and efficiency. Kite Turbines use less material, to fly continuously fast, through large areas, in stronger winds at high altitude, for more power output.
The Kite Turbine is made of a network of kites. The structure of the kite network is kept in tension by the pressure of the wind. When structures work in tension they can use materials more efficiently because the materials align with the forces.
Kite Turbines operate like wind turbines. The kite blades fly a similar path to wind turbine blade tips. The spinning Kite turbine rotor converts wind energy to torque. The torque is transmitted along a shaft of tensile tethers, to turn a generator, and make electricity at ground level.
Keeping the generator at ground level, and holding onto the rotor from ground level avoids needing to use a huge steel tower, and concrete foundation. The ground station has an anchor which screws into the ground. This significantly reduces the size of equipment needed to install a turbine. So you don’t even need a road to bring equipment to site.
The Kite Turbine rotor has a hollow axis, it has no blade roots, the blades don’t connect to a rigid hub. This means the blades fly more efficiently at large radius and avoid flying slowly in the centre. The shape of the rotor is maintained by aerodynamic and centripetal forces from auto-gyration as well as using a lightweight connecting ring for launch and flight stability.
The kite turbine rotors can be stacked upwards and concentrically. The large radius also means the number of blades can be increased efficiently. This modular method of scaling the designs maintains blade sizes appropriate for the most probable wind. This keeps the whole network structure very lightweight.
If we made the kite sizes too large, they would require unrealistically high winds and they would be inefficient and difficult to fly. But by networking ideal size blades we can scale a kite turbine deployment of hundreds of blades, potentially to huge sizes.
This same pattern of structures growing and then changing to tension based designs happened in bridges and stadiums.
Tensioned designs align materials with forces to make very efficient structures.
Lightweight construction has the benefit of being cheaper, but more importantly having less embodied carbon, so Kite Turbines are cleaner and cost less to build.
They are also easy to transport, deploy, take down, service at ground level and redeploy.
So far, we have only tested small systems, but our models and test results show that Kite Turbines should be able to take advantage of the better wind resource at high altitudes. At only 500m above ground, the wind over mainland Europe is as powerful as North Sea wind at 100m.
We flew 70 prototype variations on only a household budget. And yet we achieved an astonishing - over 800W of electrical power output per kg airborne.
We still have a lot of scope for improvement.
We’re now working on automated deployment and more stable generation controls to enhance safety and reliability. We also intend to perform further study of offshore suitability.
This next phase needs funding, so we have now partnered with Shell GameChanger, HIE and Shetland Islands Council - you can join in too - get in touch if you have a hefty clean energy research budget
Or
You can build one of our old models using the guides on Hackaday
Or
Just be in touch, chat, share like etc.
Thanks
This is why we are developing Kite Turbines.
Find out more at our website windswept.energy
Extra video clips in video from
• Kinderdijk Holland | W...
• Wind turbine || turbin...
• Start Line Action | Be...
• Construction of founda...
• ONE Spin of this GIANT...
• How a bridge is built ...
• Flying over Sheringham...
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Your project is fantastic, keep up the good work, Rodrick!
Been watching y'all's evolution for a while now and I'm only more in love with it now. Keep up the phenomenal work. As a laymen I can't help but think this research has the potential to be incredibly impactful and disruptive in the energy sector.
Incredibly fascinating concept, looking forward to the development
I appreciate the heck out of this channel
This could save places that need power quick. There like instant pop up power plants! I'm a huge fan of what yal are doing.
you've gotten far since i first subscribed. good stuff as always
Very good introductory explanation!
The argument with the wing size scaling makes sense.
Im so happy you have all partnered! Excellent!
That's so cool, keep up the motivation.
Interesting concept, keep up the great work!
Fantastic, I can’t wait to see one in person.
You the man Rod. You the man
Interesting project! Was there an analysis done on the pros and cons of such system in different conditions, compared to traditional kites on a reel (like the Kitepower Falcon)?
Thanks. Always looking to get more testing and data on performance... We're working on automating deployment to assess techno-economic scaling
@@KiteTurbine Great. I'll follow you with great interest.
In a new fan of this idea, seems like the components could be incredibly cheap to build and maintain at scale. I wonder if the designs should actually become simpler and cheaper to take advantage of manufacturing costs. In particular i worry about durability during storms, and takeoff during windless days. If the kites were at altitudes above the storms, and were able to survive up there with little maintainance that would seem ideal. Perhaps a minor digital controller can be placed on them to adjust drag automonously. Generating power by creating phases of high drag or low drag, and preventing damage caused by overly high drag
At the end of the video you mentioned there's a design on hackaday? Got a link?
consider me a superfan
hackaday.io/project/185129-energy-independence-while-travelling
Thanks for asking
Do you need continuous wind to keep the turbine aloft?
Maybe a design where you anchor a kite system at the top of a hill and at the bottom of the hill so that it is always there and will spin up when the wind is present
Yeah, anywhere there's a gap between 2 hills ... Did a rendering on a similar idea a long while back th-cam.com/video/_qxteznmp48/w-d-xo.html
U R ahead .. 💜🏴☠️🧞🏴☠️👽
Can I buy a kit?
We're still developing automated launch systems to make it a lot easier to live with.
I'm curious about scalability, the power transmission down lines seems like they would just twist if you put too much torque in the system.
Have you 3d models out what the lines would do on a massive system? Should be easy on a physics similar.
Yeah. We've got a lot of testing to do to continue proving the scalability calculations
Have you considered individual domestic solutions of rural areas or even small community solutions powering households electricity needs as opposed to pursuing big business? I'm aware in the beginning you personally can make more money selling or partnering, on your innovation with Big Business. Smaller, efficient, inexpensive to produce, easy or fast to set up domestic electricity generating solutions are more useful to the people.
In my lifetime, Worldwide, we have witnessed Big Business buyout & shelve any idea that is cheaper or alternative to the more expensive electric vehicle technology they have been pushing for decades.
I would love to see where this technology grows in the future. Wishing you success.
The Rainbow flags are great. I imagine I'm not the first to point out the advertising potential on panels, on community kite power electricity generating facilities. Local business sponsorship?
So deep into the project I imagine you have already considered 'Patreon' or 'GoFundMe' type (someone else may b able to suggest a variation more suited to your project) funding. These have the advantage of promoting your product, getting the news out there.
How long do the sails/ panels last, how often do they need to be replaced?
Our initial idea was to start producing ~5kW (Adventurer) systems for sale based on what we had already done. But this would not be fully autonomous. There isn't huge appeal for a system which needs you to stay nearby to keep it operating. So instead we open sourced the small mechanically semi-autonomous designs. We're now developing full automation, which will initially require a product of minimum 50kW (Wee Village, business or farm size) to justify the associated cost. The safety and scaling enhancements will potentially offset a lot more carbon
@@2DGraphicDesign The blades are exceptionally lightweight - we are going to further assess longevity through the course of this automation phase of our project - predicted life of leading edge tape ~1 year before it needs re-taping
@@KiteTurbine Thank you for your prompt reply. I will watch this space & share vids.
@@KiteTurbine What size is a Wee Village?
It Works ... unfortunately it's not practical ....
Not in many circumstances yet. But the potential to be very useful is there.
It has already been tried sorry .kites would need a tower to self launch Looking to recharge an electric bike on tour micro wind or micro hydro. Have you built anything like that yet i found a comment of yours making that claim ?
Yeah, about 6 years ago, th-cam.com/video/Feiyg4zr_Mw/w-d-xo.html The tests back then all used the bike as a ground station. It would be a lot of line, sail and rod equipment to organise carrying on a bike... scouts managed that though. We're now focussed on automating deployment for safe scaling. Yes using a very small tower, just enough to initiate the lift kite and clear the tips of the rotors in their start position. If you're on bike scale you can launch by hand and leave it flying
@@KiteTurbine thanks for your reply 💯 i will check out your link .